10 Students from Te Piringa – Faculty of Law had the opportunity to travel and learn in Chile in 2018 as part of the Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Latin America. We look back at some highlights of their experience.

Read Part One here

Read Part Two here

by Kathleen Roberts and Megan Hancock

Hola!

Our final week in Chile was a busy one! As per usual our mornings started off with Spanish lessons, followed by a variety of law lectures including Public work concessions, Law of the Sea, good faith in commercial contracts, law and education, human rights and, Easter Island and Rapa Nui legal issues.

We kicked Monday afternoon off with a visit to the National Congress of Chile, the legislative branch of the government. The Congress, founded in 1811, is the fourth oldest in the World. This is where the authorities gather for important ceremonies e.g. the Presidential handover, and public account announcements. It was an amazing time touring around and learning about the different rooms set for each department of the Congress.

On Wednesday we had our last full-day visit to Santiago where we visited the New Zealand Embassy. We were all pleased once we entered the building as it felt like “our home, away from home”. It was a pleasure to hear from fellow New Zealanders working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and Education New Zealand. In particular, it was great to hear that Chile is New Zealand’s closest partner for trade and multilateralism, and secondly that New Zealand and Chile are aiming to strengthen the educational experience in each country to increase social, cultural and economic benefits. We also heard from a New Zealand lawyer working in Santiago as a legal advisor. He shared his experience on his journey to Chile which was very inspiring to us who are near the end of our law degree.

As our week progressed we came to the realisation that we were soon to be jet-setting off home again, it was crazy to think we had spent nearly 4 weeks in our new adopted home. It really didn’t feel like our time abroad was coming to an end. We had our last lectures on Thursday afternoon. It was fascinating to hear an indigenous perspective on the legal issues in Easter Island, for a Rapa Nui student. In particular, it was interesting to hear that most indigenous issues were very similar to New Zealand’s situation, such as colonisation and the flow-on effects of the loss of indigenous language and land rights issues etc. We then had our final thank you dinner with some of the Valparaiso University staff that evening. A bit of fine dining was a treat we had all been looking forward to and needless to say the view was had overlooking the Valparaiso port was absolutely stunning.

Friday had come by already! There is no doubt that our last day at Valparaiso University was a very emotional day for us all. As promised we spent our day giving presentations to the lectures on the similarities and differences between our two legal systems. Needless to say, they were very impressed with how well our legal system works due to some of the major differences we have from the Chilean system. As the day progressed saying goodbye to our new friends, lecturers and adopted university was definitely hard, a few tears were shed and lots of promises were made to visit again. After we said goodbye to everyone we took in our last sight of this grand (Harry Potter-looking) building we had spent the last 4 weeks at we made our way home to start packing – we were flying home tomorrow!

The day was here, we were going home! There were mixed emotions all around but we all ventured off and did one last activity together to end our time in this beautiful country. We hopped on the train and went horse riding! There is no question there were many, many laughs at the sight of us doing such an adventurous activity, even Wayne jumped on and to our surprise, he was a natural! We were told we were going to be going up and down hills but little did we know that we would be going up a mountain that is barely walkable to the general population. Horse riding was definitely one of the most memorable times we had as a group on this trip and an experience that won’t be forgotten. As we made our way home on the train it had sunk in that in just a matter of hours we would be boarding our plane to come home. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spear and enjoyed browsing duty-free before boarding the long-haul flight back to Aotearoa. 11 hours later and we took in a big breath of the fresh crisp New Zealand air. You don’t realise how much you appreciate home until you’ve been abroad.

Gracias to the New Zealand Government and Waikato University for giving us the opportunity to study aboard and make new lifelong friends and connections! We hope to see you again, Chile!